“But there’s no Matt Dillon, season one showrunner Chad Hodge was replaced by Believe creator Mark Friedman, and Hope Davis has gone all Dr Strangelove,” Deadline Hollywood said in its review of the May 25 US premiere.

“Also, unlike last year, [executive producer M Night] Shyamalan isn’t directing any of the season two episodes. The result is that the long-gestating show based on Blake Crouch’s books that I found such a wild ride last year is really just going though the motions this time round, from what I’ve seen.”

New York Post was even more blunt — “Wayward Pines has run amok” — while Entertainment Weekly said the mix of premise restatement and story advancement was “super clunky”.

Quipped The Hollywood Reporter about a twist it didn’t see coming: “This limited series turned regular series actually appears to be an anthology in which each year a different chiseled ’80s heartthrob with a previous resistance to television finds himself in the mysterious town of Wayward Pines, interacts awkwardly with a largely new group of residents, gets indignant about following the rules and jeopardises what may be the last community of humans still alive on Earth.”

Also returning to The Zone in July for it second seasons will be Dark Matter (9.30 Thursdays from July 7) and for its final season, Continuum (9.30 Tuesdays from July 12).